broke off a solder on my new 8800GT

Looks like a surface mount capacitor, surprised the card still works at all, I would have thought something somewhere would be open circuit and not working, I guess not everything on the board is display critical, it could I guess have been part of the temperature monitoring system or some other secondary system. Id be very surprised though if you didnt have long term reliability issues as a result...

Surface mount kit can be a pain to attempt to resolder, only you would know how much force was put on the capacitor its possible it was weak from the factory but solder isnt exactly strong at the best of times and if that component was being used as grip to remove a tight fitting card then it wouldnt necesarily stand up to the force even with perfect soldering.

I would have said a cold solder joint. but from the look of it, seems like the solder is intact, you just ripped off the poor capacitor. and from the location of the capacitor, i would say you were not diligent in removing the card (never touch the components if possible. Always put fingers at edge of the PCB).

If the card is still returnable (from a retail store), do it. Maybe try to RMA it. But if I were to make a call I would say it was your fault (Not ruling out QA   )

Edit: It seems that the capacitor is connected to an Open connection (I cant be sure without a larger image). So that might be why its running fine.

hmm the solderjoint quality on the other components looks pretty poor aswell, even for leadfree solders thats bad. And you can see some of the capasitors casing still stuck on the broken joints so I'd guess they have actually baked it a tad too hot and long in the oven and thus degraded the structrucal quality of those components.. It looks like the capasitors contact metallizations are still connected to the solder under that orange/brown casing material, so thats a component failure as such, even though the joint has cracked in the upper part of the joint.

But in any case you shouldn't be able to pry those components loose with just your nails if the quality of the product were at acceptable levels. So RMA it, thats a manufacturing defect if I've ever seen one

Could you take a sideview shot of the C623 next to the missing cap pls. It looks like it hasnt soldered well at all, from this angle it looks the solder hasnt properly risen up the contact metallization of the capasitor. If thats the case, IMHO that would warrant a return all by itself. Even though its electrically working its not mechanically good joint and thus a reliability risk and the fabs quality control should have noticed and fixed it

RMA it and tell them what happened. As Kari says it's not your fault as it shouldn't come off that easily.

The card works now, but it may not work in the future due to this.

Thanks for the advice. I have heard on another forum that I broke off a surface capacitor and that it could have been a part of the secondary system. I have been working on this build for almost a month now (time is tight with a job, wife and two little ones) and would hate any further delays if I RMA it. My COD4 rank somehow got reset (from 29 down to 1) and am waiting to play it again and rank up again until this build is finished and a fresh install of XP is in place. It’s an EVGA, and I bought it on October 29 but did not actually receive it until November 26-27. I bought the basic version and came packaged as such, but when I started it up in my old rig it read stock speeds of 650 core, 1650 shader, 950 mem, so its obviously superclocked version. I consider myself somewhat lucky in this instance, but now am bumming since the rest of the build is damn perfect – sleeved every cable in UV-reactive and took every care with cables, components, thermal paste replacements, etc. I don’t want to have a broken video card in something that is perfect.

I have the card mounted in the BTX-style case (A+ Black Pearl) so this bottom of the card was actually on the bottom. As I was reaching underneath to pull the little plastic lever on the motherboard to release the card (in order to mount VF900 and ramsinks), I clipped the capacitor with my finger/nail and I just heard tink-tonk-tink as it bounced over mobo and case surface. However for the life of me cannot find the little piece. I know I barely touched it with the tip of my fingernail, but from that angle I guess you don’t need much force to break something this fragile. I cannot completely blame the mfg since I should have been more careful – one of those freak accidents after 100+ built computers…

I plan to look for the little piece again tonight when I come home and if I find it try to superglue it back on there. I heard that superglue may work for this? I have no electrical background so if you think that superglue might damage it further or help, please shoot me a quick response. After mounting the VF900 I was planning to OC the card a bit (700-1700-1000), but now I am not sure if that is a good idea.

You’re still reading? LOL.

One thing I do know – I don’t plan to RMA it if it is working ok at stock speeds any time soon. I waited for it so long and it is still out of stock everywhere. If I RMA’d it, I may end up waiting for a replacement for another month (whether from Fry’s or EVGA). Plus if I got a new one – chances are it would not be the SC version. GRRRRRR.

superglue isnt electrically conductive as far as I know, and based on the photo the capasitor itself is damaged (cracked) beyond repair, so you cant really use it to repair the card yourself...
If you find it you could see if its possible to make out the markings on the capasitor (capasitor type number or capacitance value and voltage rating) and get a matching new one from radioshack or something (dont know what else you have there) and solder it back using a soldering iron.
Superglue could be used to keep it still while soldering the contacts, those small parts can be a bit tricky to solder manually if you dont have some experience whit soldering before hand...  

I had a couple of those burn out on my old 5800 ultra, leaf-blower edition due to a USB connector not letting the PCB always stay seated in the AGP slot. Call the manufacturer (skip retail stores, they might just tell you to call them anyway) and tell them its just acting up. You might have to wait a week or so for the new card, but probably your best bet. If the retail option works, just play dumb and look for the dumbest customer service employee.  

If you can return it ... do so . If not ... NO SUPER GLUE WILL NOT WORK ! The only other course would be to have it repaired by someone with micro soldering equipt. Is the component there ? Is only the solder missing ? Extremely simple fix by any tv repair man . Probably only a 2 dollar fix . If you were near me I'd do it for nothing and he may also . I agree with the one reply .... company did a lousey job on that board !

Well i differ from everyone else and say that if it is working keep it as no harm done .

I mean if its not acting up now then there is a good chance it won t act up in the future.

Play your games and overclock the bad boy hehehe

i mean give it all its got   if it still does not act up then just play your games and forget about it .

I have a board with 4-5 bad caps that just keeps going......but i think its time to retire it.....